An evaluation of muscular contraction is one of the vital parameters involved in therapeutic treatment of muscular rehabilitation in the field of traumatic and neurological pathology, as well as in the field of sports therapy and training. Ultra-sound scans have been used for some time now in the medical diagnostic field, as they provide information on the structure of the muscle and its dimensions as well as enabling a visualisation of morphological and dimensional modifications in the muscular venter during the contraction phase. The ultra-sound method used at present, and the relative instruments it is performed with, enable an evaluation of only those morphological modifications of the fibres which take place during contraction. With the ultrasound apparatus presently available it is not possible to obtain any quantitative information on the contraction dynamics; in other words quantification of the various stages taking place between the start phase (at rest) and the final phase of contraction; nor it is possible to define the parameters of muscular functionality (force, potential, velocity, contraction and relaxation times, etc.), which are important in defining the correct contractile behaviour as well as in identifying where the greatest deficit (if any) takes place within a determined muscular exertion. The latter is necessary so that a suitable therapy cycle or training scheme can be devised.
To obviate this drawback, an apparatus was constructed, object of Italian patent no. IT 1287407, by the present inventor, which, briefly, uses a sampler which, from a pre-selected ultra-sound image of the muscle provided by the apparatus, provides signals which are proportional to the dilation of the section of the muscle under examination and converts them, by means of an analog-digital converter, into digital signals which are then transmitted to a computer. A program then enables the signals relating to a section of muscle, generated analogically and then digitally converted by the sampler, to be processed in a time-dilation diagram which is visualised and memorised.
This apparatus, though obviating the above-mentioned drawbacks, does not enable much and various processing to be carried out on a same section, which would give the advantage of offering a choice to the operator of the best section for the purpose in mind, i.e. the most accurate possible evaluation of a muscular contraction in a single situation.
The prior art teaches another apparatus, US patent U.S. Pat. No. 6,185,451, which analyses the behaviour of the muscles during the performance of certain exercises. This apparatus is limited, however, to an evaluation of the electromyographical changes in the superficial muscles of the pelvis, and can not directly measure the behavior of the deep muscles, only being able to assess their behavior through interpretation of the changes in the electromyographical signals. Further, this apparatus uses signals proportional to the dilation of the surface muscle under examination and converts them, by means of an analog-digital converter, into digital signals which are transmitted to a computer. This apparatus too exhibits the same limits and drawbacks of the previously-described apparatus. The aim of the present invention is thus to provide a method and an apparatus for processing muscular ultrasound readings, which method and apparatus are extremely versatile and able to perform processing operations which are not possible with the apparatus presently available.
The technical characteristics of the invention, in accordance with the above-mentioned aims, are clearly seen from the contents of the claims appended hereto, and the advantages of the invention shall become more evident from the detailed description that follows.
The main aim of the present invention is to provide a method and apparatus for processing ultra-sound scans of muscles, where the method and apparatus are very versatile; the invention also carries out processing which is not possible with existing apparatus.